shmessy

I LOVE this column about the Little Franchise That Could:

http://www.boston.com/sports/footbal...s_full_circle/

I feel a little the same (although my angst came in the early 70's when the Needham IHOP had every other team's helmet logos on their little plastic giveaways - - except the hometown Patriots).

__________________
"They (Patriots) may be the greatest team ever" - Chris Mortenson, January 18, 2005 on espn.com

italian pat patriot

i really loved too this article

weswelker#83

Good read , thanks.

PatsWickedPissah

Captured my sentiments from that era exactly. I hated having the New York team shoved down our TV throats and liked the Browns. I was exctatic when Boston got an AFL franchise. Had I known the decades of suffering that would lay ahead filling the entire century with derision & frustration...

I loved everything about the Patriots and the AFL from the beginning. I'd read up on the new players - Butch Songin, Jimmy Colclough, Gino Cappelletti, Ron Burton. I felt a sudden kinship with cities I had barely heard of - Denver, Buffalo, Houston. I couldn't have been happier if Ursula Andress had walked off the screen in "Dr. No" and into my arms. My heart belonged to the Boston Patriots and the new league.

You would think most Bostonians of my vintage would share in the same nostalgia as the New England Patriots vie for an undefeated season and its fourth NFL Super Bowl title.

You would be wrong. The beloved team in the Boston area throughout the early to mid-'60s was the very team that 99 percent of the folks around here will now be rooting against on Saturday: the New York Giants.

Back then, CBS continued to broadcast the Giants games here every Sunday while the AFL, at first, was on the aptly spunky ABC. The Patriots were so intimidated by the Giants' popularity that they played most of their home games on Friday and Saturday nights. All but a handful of my friends refused to take the new league seriously and went on worshipping Y.A. Tittle, Frank Gifford, and all the rest.

Frankly, I always hated the Giants. Even before the AFL, my father and I were Cleveland Browns fans, since Channel 5 broadcast their games as part of a syndicated package and Jim Brown was a more intriguing player to me than anyone on the white-bread Giants.

__________________
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck." RAH

shmessy

Anyone remembers the Sports Huddle with Eddie Andelman, Mark Witkin and Jim McCarthy on Sunday nights?

One of my favorite parts in the 70's and early 80's (when the NY Giants were consistently horrible) was listening to Eddie rundown that afternoon's NFL scores. He would always purposely leave the Giants score to the end. Then, with GREAT relish intone "....and the New York Giants took a VICIOUS beatin' from the ####### today by a score of 10-7".

Evidently, he suffered during those early years also.

__________________
"They (Patriots) may be the greatest team ever" - Chris Mortenson, January 18, 2005 on espn.com

PatsWickedPissah

I LOVED Andleman's "vicious beating" rants!

__________________
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck." RAH

ClevTrev

Yep, we all suffered from those early years, but the foundation developed with fans who had seen it all and didn't expect a lot. A great article with the historical perspective for those of us who were football fans in the late 50s and early 60s. While I watched a lot of Giants football, as there was little choice back then, I favored the Colts and the Browns over the Giants.

When the Patriots franchise was founded, it was a whole new era with a team of our own. It didn't take more than a second to become a Patriots fan, and the rest is history. White footballs and night games. It was great!

__________________

40yrpatsfan

I think most of us liked both the Pats and the Giants. It was apples and oranges the first 5 years of the AFL, like arena football. I was so depressed when the Giants lost to the Bears in the '63 title game, and just as depressed about the Pats losing to the Chargers that same year. It wasn't either-or.

By the mid 60's it was obvious that the AFL was good, and the Pats also had a very entertaining team with many stars from '64-'68. Great d-line with Dee-Anthoine-Eisenhauer, Buoniconti at MLB, a poised QB in Parilli, great RB's in Nance & Garrett, good receivers including Gino & Colclough. They were really fun to watch. When the up and coming Jets and Namath upset them in '66, that was tough to take - I thought the Pats were going all the way that year.

RayClay

Not me. I was just a tot, but my patience grew thin and I finally started whining to my old man.

The Pats had a good team in the early 60's and i just couldn't understand why anyone would want to watch the Giants when we had our own team.

Of course my father had to explain to me why Punch and Judy hitter Pete runnels wasn't a great player even though he won a batting title.

I was right about the pats, though. We had some solid talent on that team.

__________________